Hi , Am trying to create a SIP for the year 2008 with our business partners being our end audience.Its essentially a Powerpoint presentation with what we intend to do in the next year in order to improve our services. For example I have put Increase in the FCR, Getting the Voice of the Customer( VoC) , getting CTQ as our Service Improvement Plans. We also plan to do some Six Sigma Benchmarking for the process by the end of second quarter and also target the next sigma level . Can someone please let me know if this is somewhat on the lines of ITIL V3 Continual Service Improvement ?

It's not really 'V3 Continual Service Improvement' that's important - it doesn't give you a silver bullet solution applicable to any organisation.

The basics of the V3 improvement model is:

Vision?
Where are we now?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?
Did we get there?

Hardly rocket science huh?

Anyway, perhaps less generic you could try some of the following stuff, though please remember I don't know much about your organisation and presume that the scope is just the Service Desk as this is where you've posted it. You might want to ask yourself things like:

What is the overriding goal of your service? Sounds like a stupid question, but I know a lot of people who couldn't tell me if it's more important to get a first time fix and potentially spend longer on the first call, or just maintain high service desk availability for the human touch - people need to feel loved!

Have you (or your customer) defined where you are meant to be for a service improvement programme to have purpose.

Have you got a clear steer on what are the hot spots? In other words, what are your customers (business partners) telling you are the priorities?

Have they set any time scales or other limits for different types of improvement?

So without knowing a bit more specifically about your business scenario, off the top of my head I'd suggest these generic components:

Define requirements
Agree goals and their prioritisation
Agree critical success factors for accomplishing the goals (maybe this can be a series of metrics if your reporting is good)
Define your resource requirements to accomplish goals and anything the customer has to do to make it easier for you to succeed - important they play ball too!
Put together a plan that you can actually achieve and get sign off from the customer. Ensure you build in review points and milestones to make sure you're on track.

Um... It's quite early and my brain isn't fully in gear yet. I'm sure some of the others can add to this lot for you.

In terms of the presentation its self - and I'm sure you're a master presenter but here goes...

Keep it jargon free and always explain what acronyms stand for BEFORE using them.

Also, ensure the slides are not too wordy, people zone out when confronted with a whole screen of text. Use just bullets with short single sentences so they spend more time focused on what you're saying.

If you want to check (respectfully) whether people understand what you're trying to say you might want to focus on someone and ask things like: "does that seem relevant to you/your team's experiences?", "can you see any issues with this approach in your department", "does anyone want to add to that list?"

You probably already have a format for presenting in your organisation, but it might be useful to keep in mind a simple format to help you build your story: Situation -> Target -> Proposal.

Sorry if that's all obvious but i thought even if it's not useful to you it might help someone else who reads it.

Dear UrgentJensen,
To be honest, I had to grab a cuppa even before I started reading it.
I have always defined the acronyms in or after my presentations. An up-front information could be helpful and the audience can relate in a better way. Regarding the best questions of Vision , Where are we now? ,Where do we want to be? ,How do we get there? and Did we get there? , I intend to do some six sigma benchmarking. Let's say vision=3.4 DPMO, Where are we now- Our current six sigma score. This can be gathered using identifying what is an opportunity and what is the defect. An opportunity is nothing but the Critical to customers (The CTQs). Where do we want to be- The target six sigma score. We can't target one without doing the baselining.How do we get there?-Most important question!. This is very subjective and depends upon my KPIs.Did we get there?-Easy.Again the DPMO results.

My intention is simple. I want my function or rather the process to be measured in Six Sigma standards. This would suggest how much we are meeting the requirements.

Thanks again. Have you heard anyone adopting this approach. Is ITIL-Six Sigma strange mix ?The version 3 coninual service improvement is nothing but about planning your improvement programmes. If you fail to plan , you plan to fail.

6 Sigma and ITIL processes? Sure. Afterall they're just processes and they may need honing so why not use it. My organisation doesn't use 6 Sigma, but I know others who do within their IT Department (a Change Manage being one).